The Intermediate State Paul has as the hope for himself and all other believers the great triumph of Christ’s return and the resurrection. This is the prime and main comfort he extends to those who are sorrowing (1 Thess. 4:13–18). Without diminishing this perspective, he also speaks of the provision for believers between their death and resurrection, and it is this to which we refer as the “intermediate state,” so named “simply and only because it is temporary, and it is such both for the just